Filming in Queen Elizabeth National Park- Popularly known as the medley of wonders! Queen Elizabeth National park is popular for different wildlife, primate, and cultural safaris by most visitors all over the work. Queen Elizabeth National park is found on the Rift valley floor in western Uganda with various biodiversity or ecosystems that comprise several grasslands, several crater lakes, forested areas, gorges caves, and the famous water channel.

The park was named after the current Queen Elizabeth the second, the Queen of England after she visited the park. It is the second-largest National Park in Uganda after Murchison Falls National Park and it features over 95 species of mammals and about 612 species of birds. Among the species in Queen Elizabeth National Park include the tree climbing lions in Ishasha plains, mongoose, herds of elephants and buffaloes, the rare shoebill species, and several antelopes found within the park.

Filming in Queen Elizabeth National Park can be done for either commercial or for other main reasons Africa Adventure Vacations, we organize and arrange wildlife safaris in Queen Elizabeth and also provide avenues for the film crew member or lovers to book for their filming permits in Queen Elizabeth national park as well as transportation and accommodation facilities.

In Uganda, there are different National Parks where filming can take place each national park has got different biodiversity, vegetation zones, different landscape or terrain and the knowledge of the Ugandans is very crucial when it comes to knowledge and experience sharing. Built for today’s discussion, we’re focusing on the filming in Queen Elizabeth National Park through offering and detailing about the filming in Queen Elizabeth National park and what is needed to do for you to have successful filming without forgetting what to film in Queen Elizabeth National Park.

About filming in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Like any other activity, filming in Queen Elizabeth National is regulated by the Uganda Wildlife Authority which is concerned with the protection of all the wildlife areas and National Park in Uganda and this means that if you need to do filming in Queen Elizabeth National Park you must first consult the Uganda wildlife authority and for a memorandum, of understanding with them regarding your filming in the park.

Filming in Queen Elizabeth National Park is an important activity and popular because of the species and the spectacular views of the park and the snow-capped mountain Ruwenzori, while in Queen Elizabeth National Park you can film a lot of things including experiential tourism activities in lions and mongooses, Kazinga channel boat cruise, the chimpanzee in Kyambura gorge, lions, elephants and Buffaloes among other activities. As African adventure vacations, we act as your film crew fixers with all the knowledge about the Queen Elizabeth National Park since we have conducted safaris in the park several times.

Things to Film in Queen Elizabeth National Park

A number of things can be filmed in Queen Elizabeth national park and these include;

Filming Banded Mongoose in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Banded mongooses are found in almost every national park but banded mongooses filming is mostly done in queen Elizabeth National Park. For all those who are interested in filming the banded mongoose then queen Elizabeth National Park Mweya peninsular is the best destination or place where you can film the banded mongoose. Mweya is one of the sectors of queen Elizabeth National Park located in the northern part and it is where most of the park activities start from.

Mongoose in Queen Elizabeth National Park are available in Mweya and they are used for research, filming, and experiential tourists. It is believed that there is over 400 individual mongoose that lives in the social group of about twelve. Filming mongoose in Queen Elizabeth National Park will involve you contacting the researchers who are on the ground in Mweya since they have been working with mongoose for a long time.

The researchers know which habituated mongoose can be filmed and as of now a fee of 300USD is paid to researchers per day and the film crew before even accessing the park will have to make a contract or memorandum of understanding with UWA to be able to get permission to go and do banded mongoose filming to Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Filming Elephant herds in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Queen Elizabeth National park in western Uganda is one of the few national parks of Africa with the highest concentration of elephants staying in their untamed wildlife areas. Usually, elephants are seen wandering through the park in herds, and in almost every part of queen Elizabeth Nation Park, you will find their elephants. Elephants can be seen around the Kasenyi Planes, Ishasha sector, and majorly are seen along the Kazinga channel especially in the afternoon as they are quenching water from the channel.

The recent Uganda wildlife Authority survey of elephants in 2018 revealed that queen Elizabeth national park has got over 3,953 elephants and increase from 2,913 elephants which were registered in 201. This means that there are herds and herds of elephants within the park because of the abundance of the elephants. You need to come any time to for the filming elephants in Queen Elizabeth however most people consider filming during the dry season, but the west season can provide beautiful backgrounds of green vegetation courtesy of rainy season and this means that the place offers the best opportunities for the film crew members to film properly large herds of elephants within the wild.

Filming the Rare Shoebill in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Queen Elizabeth National park features swamps around Lake Gorge and Edward and these swamps have for long provided the breeding ground for the rare bird species known as the shoebill. The shoebill bird is a unique bird that is popular in the swampy areas around Uganda. Shoebills are found along the shores of Lake Gorge and Edward in queen Elizabeth National Park.

For the filming lovers, you don’t need to miss out on this spot because filming the shoebill in the muddy swamp hunting for fish has produced one of the interesting and quality production and filming overcome and contact Africa adventure vacations as your film fixer in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Others areas in Uganda where shoebill can be filmed include the Mabamba wetland, Makanaga bay swamp, Lugogo swamps among other interesting destinations.

Filming the Tree-climbing lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Yes, lions are important components of the wildlife in Queen Elizabeth National park. The current census confirms over 130 lions that are found in the park. Lions can be seen in Mweya, Kasenyi plains, and Ishasha plains. However, Queen Elizabeth National Park is known as the only destination with the tree-climbing lion in Uganda and the whole of East Africa.

Most of the lions are seen climbing the trees and imagine the videos of you filming lions climbing the trees, and this has been a high selling video on African wildlife. Most of the lions are sighted early in the morning or late in the afternoon. In the afternoon, there is much sunshine and in most cases, the lions are hiding and thus early morning hours and late evening times are favorable for filming the tree climbing lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Filming Hippos in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Hippos live both on land and water. They spend most of the daytime in the waters of the Kazinga channel and they leave water usually at night to feed on the grass in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Kazinga channel in Queen Elizabeth National Park has got the highest concentration of hippos in the whole of Africa and therefore fore this makes it population large thus making is nice for filming. Other than Kazinga Channel, Queen Elizabeth National Park is surrounded by several water bodies that include Lake Edwards, Lake Kyoga which all contain hippos.

There are over 6000 hippos in Queen Elizabeth National Park and you can film them while on the boat on the Kazinga channel or land especially by waking up early in the morning before they get back into the water or later in the evening when they are out of the water and thus you need to note that you can do film hippos in Queen Elizabeth National Park both on water and on land.

Filming chimpanzees in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Chimpanzees are intelligent creatures of queen Elizabeth national [park. filming chimpanzees can be done in queen Elizabeth National park at Kyambura gorge which is covered by forest. This is an interesting activity for filming offering the views of the forests and that of the escapements.

Filming Leopards in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Wildlife filming safaris continue in Queen Elizabeth National Park with the filming of the famous cut leopards. Leopards are nice-looking cuts in the wild of Queen Elizabeth National Park that are interesting to film. Leopard filming in Queen Elizabeth National park becomes so fast and easy when you combine or use the services of the Uganda carnivore project that offer experiential tourism with a leopard tracking experience. With this experience, you will closely work with the researchers who track carnivores like lions and leopards with the use of radio calls, and with researchers, you will be able to film properly the lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Filming the cultural encounters around Queen Elizabeth National Park

Queen Elizabeth National Park is surrounded by several local villages that offer cultural or traditional cultural experiences depicting the African and the Ankole culture and the activities that they are involved in. You can film the local fishermen on the lake especially around Kazinga, Katungulu, Kasenyi, Hamukungu among other areas. Other areas of interest include the salt mining activities on Lake Katwe, the crater lakes of Bunyampaka and Nyamusingiri among other amazing scenes that could be incorporated while shooting the video.

Best time to do Filming in Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Like any other park in Uganda, Queen Elizabeth National park can be visited throughout the year for all those who are interested in filming activities within the Park. There are two weather seasons in Queen Elizabeth National Park and these include rainy and wet seasons and we believe and recommend that dry season should be your best time to do filming of different species as we have seen above.

The dry season in Uganda comes in January, February, June, July, August, September, and December the rest of the months rains are common. The reason why you should do Filming in Queen Elizabeth National Park during the dry season is that there are few or no rains for interruptions during filming and the grass are not all that grown-up that would obstruct shooting or filming the elephant. You need to contact us and we provide you with the best advance regarding the best time to film in Queen Elizabeth National Park.

However, you should not disregard the wet season where there are some rains, the wet season in Queen Elizabeth National Park is unpredictable and in most cases, it might rain very early in the morning and then open the sky’s for the rest of the day or it might also rain for 2 hours or an hour only. The wet season provides beautiful scenes for you to shoot provided that there is greener vegetation that improves the quality of filming. You can still do filming in the rainy season in Queen Elizabeth National Park and thus you need to use the 4×4 vehicle to provide you with comfortable travel and table on the road since roads tend to be sleepy during the rainy season.

Lodges for you while Filming in Queen Elizabeth National Park

While conducting filming, you will need to spend some days or weeks depending on your time and budget and the availability of the filming activity or filming animals. Thus you will need to book an accommodation lodge where you will stay while filming in Queen Elizabeth National park. Queen Elizabeth National Park is surrounded by lodges of all categories ranging from Budget, midrange, and luxury lodges. There are also options for those interested in camping. It is good that you book a lodge that is convenient to your place where you’re doing filming such that there will be no delays when it comes to filming

There different accommodation facilities around Queen Elizabeth National Park and for the budget film crew members, you can stay at loges like Elephant Hub lodge, Pumba, among others and the price here ranges from 90 United States dollars to 100 United States dollars. For midrange film, crew member’s lodges range from 100USD to 200USD per night and these include the Bush lodge, Buffalo safari lodge among others. Queen Elizabeth also provides luxury accommodation facilities that include Mweya Safari lodge inside the park, Katara Lodge, Kyambura gorge Lodge, and Mazike Safari loge, and here the price is around 200USD to 400USD per person per night. All the hotels offer a meal plan which is on a full board basis.

Permission for doing Filming in Queen Elizabeth National Park

It is a must that for one to be able to Film in Queen Elizabeth National Park, he or she must be accredited by the Uganda media council as the law stipulates. This means that after you have got your Ugandan elephant filming permit, then the next step is for you to get credentials for the Uganda press accreditation offered by the Uganda Media Council. For those who are interested and they are from the local company, or private production companies or filming companies min Uganda here, should hand in their application via a recognized local agent who is in the books of the Ministry.

This is a must for all those even who are interested in the filming industry even shortly. Applicants will have to fill the so-called form-G which we shall send you and then after filling it, you will be requested to send it to us back with attachments of your passport /national identity and then the passport photo that is put on the license form.

How much does it cost to do Filming in Queen Elizabeth National Park?

The time that you will spend within the park will be the basis for deterring the filming cost in Queen Elizabeth National Park. After getting all the requirements for filming and clearance to do filming with Queen Elizabeth National Park then you will be required to pay 40 % of the total activity fees per film crew person per entry into the park of you’re going to do commercial wildlife filming for the wildlife animals in Queen Elizabeth National Park? Currently, the Uganda wildlife charged USD40 per person entry into the Queen Elizabeth National Park, and therefore the 40% of USD is USD16 per film crew member and this cost will cover the filming fees within the park while on game drives or filming on a boat cruise. You will as well pay the 10% fee put by Uganda Wildlife Authority as the monitoring fees. You will also need to cover other additional costs such as;

Media Accreditation fees: For you to do filming you will need to pay USD175 for the media card which is issued to you by the media council. You will need to submit the necessary documentation to the Uganda media council to get this media card and usually it goes monthly and this means that it experts at the end of the month approximately thirty days. Contact Africa Adventure Vacation for more this information.

Customs clearing fees: You will also first clear with customs depending on the value and type of the equipment or the kit and this is cleared with the Uganda Revenue Authority that is always at your point of entry and exists. At Africa adventure Vacations, we assist you in clearing this and what is needed s you to provide us with the list of the equipment, value and then type and we shall forward the list to customs who will charge according to but usually they charge ten percent of the total value of the kit and this usually last for about two days.

The Transport and Accommodation fees: we usually use cruiser 4×4 vehicle which is hired at around USD200 or the supper customer 4 wheel drive vehicles that are offered at around USD150 per vehicle per day. All this provides once you have booked with us. We also book for you the lodges where you will stay and what you need is to tell us where you need luxury, midrange, or budget lodges. For you can get a budget lodge from USD90-100, Midrange from USD200-300, and then a Luxury lodge from USD300-400 or 500USD per person per night with the full board meal plan.

How to get to Queen Elizabeth National Park for Filming?

By road

There are different routes that one can use to access queen Elizabeth national park for filming. You can drive from Kampala to Fortportal via Mubende then connect to Kasese and finally to Queen Elizabeth national park. This route lasts for about 5 to 6 hours and it is approximately 390 kilometers. You can as well use Kampala, Mbarara Bushenyi Kasese route to access queen Elizabeth national park which is about 398 kilometers. Travelers or visitors from Rwanda can as well access through Ntungamo, Kabale then connects to Bushenyi- Kasese road and finally to the park which is about 4 to 6 hours’ drive. Even after your gorilla trekking safaris in Bwindi, you can connect to Queen Elizabeth National park via the Ishasha sector which is situated in the Southern part of the park.

By air transport

Queen Elizabeth National Park can also be accessed by use of air transports. Travelers can book a domestic air friend with Aerolink limited from Entebbe international airports or Kajjansi airstrip to Mweya airstrip which is about a 1-hour journey. Then from the Mweya airstrip, your travel guide can come to pick and drop you at your lodge or hotel whether you will engage to participate in different activities in the National park such as boat cruise at Kazinga channel, chimpanzee trekking, game drives, and culture tours among others. Vibrant holiday safaris can help you to organize and book a domestic flight to Queen Elizabeth National Park.